Equipment which is left idle for relatively long periods of time suffers from physical failure due to the idle period. Such failure includes but is not limited to mechanical bearing failure due to the drying of lubricants, leaking of gases or fluids due to the drying of seals, blockage of liquid carrying conduits due to corrosion and other chemical processes and failure of electronic components due to chemical reaction inactivity for such long periods of time.
It is typical for such equipment to be serviced before being re-started up. Such service is costly and potentially environmentally harmfull due to the need in many cases to add additional solvents and chemicals such as Freon in an air conditioning system.